OCSA 2005 - Political Economy of Contemporary India

Pre-requisite

aucun

Course Description

This is an introductory course to India's political economy in the contemporary period (1950 to present). It will cover 3 broad thematic areas: (i) key elements of India's development experience in the 30 years following independence including the major economic development policies, with an emphasis on the state-led industrialisation strategy, as well as a detailed discussion of the main political institutions (parliamentary democracy, multi-party system, federal system); (ii) the politics of economic reforms (1980-present), with a focus on the context in which reforms were adopted, the actors driving the process and the implications in terms of social and spatial justice; (iii) the study of conditions giving rise to rescaling processes in the post-reform period, notably subnational political dynamics, the assertion of subnational economic development initiatives and the emergence of large cities as growth engines.

Seminar format: students are required to prepare by reading the assigned material (one article for each class). Students will prepare a research question to be presented orally and will submit a written assignment on a topic decided with the instructor.

Teachers

KENNEDY, Loraine (Research Director, CNRS)

Course validation

Students will prepare a research topic in groups and present it to the class (40% of final grade). A written assignment (12-15 pages) will critically discuss 2 or more articles and propose a thesis (50% of the grade). Attendance is mandatory and class participation is noted (10% of the grade).

Workload

Approximately 1-2 hours of preparation (reading) for each class; additional work required for preparing oral presentations and final written assignment.

Required reading

(See detailed syllabus)

Plans de cours et bibliographies

Session 1: Introduction

Instructor and student introductions: Masters programmes and concentrations; background; motivation; Description of course: contents; organization; requirements. NB mandatory readings are made available to the students.

Decentralisation reforms in the 1990s did not lead to effective devolution; growing conflicts between urban middle class interests and social movements promoting a broader agenda for ‘right to the city’

Shatkin, Gavin, ed. 2014. Contesting the Indian City: Global Visions and the Politics of the Local. West Sussex UK: Wiley Blackwell.

Zérah, M.-H., Dupont, V., & Tawa Lama-Rewal, S. (Eds.). (2011). Urban Policies and the Right to the City in India. Rights,responsibilities and citizenship. New Delhi: UNESCO & Centre de Sciences Humaines.

Session 9: Student presentations

Session 10: Student presentations

Session 11: Student presentations

Session 12: Final class

Biographical Information

Loraine Kennedy is a Senior Research Fellow at the CNRS and member of the Center for South Asian Studies (CEIAS) at the EHESS in Paris. Her research focuses on state restructuring, economic development and the politics of metropolitan space and scale in India, with increasing interest in international comparison, notably with China. Recent publications include a research monograph The Politics of Economic Restructuring in India. Economic Governance and State Spatial Rescaling (Routledge 2014), a volume co-edited with Rob Jenkins and Partha Mukhopadhyay, Power, Policy, and Protest: The Politics of India’s Special Economic Zones (OUP 2014), a special issue of Economic and Political Weekly co-edited with Ashima Sood on “Greenfield Development as Tabula Rasa. Rescaling, Speculation and Governance on India’s Urban Frontier” (April 2016), and a special issue on “State Restructuring and Emerging Patterns of Subnational Policy-Making and Governance in China and India” in Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space (January 2017).